Icon PLC (ICLR Quick QuoteICLR - Free Report) shares rallied 4.5% in the last trading session to close at $205.20. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 9.3% gain over the past four weeks.

ICON recorded a strong price increase on optimism surrounding the company winning the U.S. antitrust approval for its February-announced acquisition of PRA Health Sciences for a total deal value of $12 billion. The transaction is expected to remain highly accretive for ICON delivering double-digit accretion in the first full year of completion of the deal and growing by more than 20% thereafter.

Price and Consensus

This contract research organization is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.93 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +13.5%. Revenues are expected to be $780.49 million, up 9.1% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Icon PLC, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on ICLR going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>